ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Multiple dendrochronological responses to the eruption of Cinder Cone, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dendro.2009.09.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Two dendrochronological properties – ring width and ring chemistry – were investigated in trees near Cinder Cone in Lassen Volcanic National Park, northeastern California, for the purpose of re-evaluating the date of its eruption. Cinder Cone is thought to have erupted in AD 1666 based on ring-width evidence, but interpreting ring-width changes alone is not straightforward because many forest disturbances can cause changes in ring width. Old Jeffrey pines growing in Cinder Cone tephra and elsewhere for control comparison were sampled. Trees growing in tephra show synchronous ring-width changes at AD 1666, but this ring-width signal could be considered ambiguous for dating the eruption because changes in ring width can be caused by other events. Trees growing in tephra also show changes in ring phosphorus, sulfur, and sodium during the late 1660s, but inter-tree variability in dendrochemical signals makes dating the eruption from ring chemistry alone difficult. The combination of dendrochemistry and ring-width signals improves confidence in dating the eruption of Cinder Cone over the analysis of just one ring-growth property. These results are similar to another case study using dendrochronology of ring width and ring chemistry at Parícutin, Michoacán, Mexico, a cinder cone that erupted beginning in 1943. In both cases, combining analysis with ring width and ring chemistry improved confidence in the dendro-dating of the eruptions.

Introduction

In order to date a cinder-cone eruption using dendrochronology, several requisites must be satisfied (Brantley et al., 1986): (1) trees with visible, dateable growth rings must be growing near the cinder cone. (2) tephra must deposit over soils where trees are growing and affect ring growth of those trees; the thickness of tephra needed to change tree-ring growth might vary with other environmental factors. (3) The eruption must have occurred during the lifespan of affected trees.

Volcanic eruptions can affect ring width in trees (Yamaguchi and Lawrence, 1993), but interpreting ring-width changes alone as evidence of an eruption is not straightforward because many forest disturbances can cause similar changes (Sheppard et al., 2005). In addition to ring width, variability in elemental concentrations in tree rings can reflect environmental changes caused by an eruption (Hughes, 1988). Dendrochemistry is the measurement and interpretation of elemental concentrations in tree rings (Smith and Shortle, 1996), and it has been applied widely in environmental research, including regional-, hemispheric-, and global-scale explosive volcanic eruptions (Hall et al., 1990; Padilla and Anderson, 2002; Ünlü et al., 2005; Pearson et al., 2005; Battipaglia et al., 2007). Dendrochemistry has not worked well on Mount Etna, a volcano with frequent, persistent eruptions, but dendrochemistry might fare better with volcanoes having single eruptions and lacking other confounding pollution (Watt et al., 2007), which accurately describes remote cinder cones. For example, dendrochemical responses to the 1943 eruption of Parícutin, a cinder cone in Michoacán, Mexico (Luhr and Simkin, 1993), include increases in tree-ring sulfur and phosphorus at the start of the eruption (Sheppard et al., 2008).

Parícutin is a single case of combining dendrochemistry with ring-width analysis to demonstrate multiple dendrochronological responses to a cinder cone eruption, but replication at other sites is needed to validate this concept. As an additional case, cinder cone in Lassen Volcanic National Park in northeastern California (Fig. 1) meets the criteria listed above and was investigated for multiple dendrochronological responses, including tree-ring chemistry. Cinder Cone is thought to have erupted in the mid 1600s (Clynne et al., 2000; Clynne et al., 2002). Key evidence for dating Cinder Cone is a 4-year period beginning in AD 1666 of below-average ring width in one tree found 0.2 km west of the crater (Finch, 1937). However, the tree used to date Cinder Cone to AD 1666 has another 4-year period of below-average ring width beginning in AD 1567 (Finch, 1937). The date of AD 1567 is not possible for the eruption of Cinder Cone (Clynne et al., 2000), so below-average growth at that time must have been caused by some other factor. The objective of this research is to document dendrochemical responses to the eruption of Cinder Cone and to further refine the analysis of multiple tree-ring responses for dating cinder cone eruptions.

Section snippets

Study site

Lassen Volcanic National Park (Fig. 1) is within in the Sierra Steppe–Mixed Coniferous Forest Ecoregion (Bailey, 1995). Climate of the area is wet, with a mean annual precipitation of over 1000 mm that falls predominantly as snow during winter, and cool, with a mean annual temperature of 6 °C, as determined from climate data collected within Lassen Volcanic National Park (Parker, 1991). Surface geology of Lassen Volcanic National Park, located at the southern end of the Cascade Volcanic Arc (Fig.

Ring-width responses to the eruption

Quantitative crossdating of sampled Cinder Cone Jeffrey pines with the regional Jeffrey pine master series is moderately strong. Cross-correlations between each tree and the regional master series range from −0.01 (no correlation) to +0.49 (Table 2). It is not due to low interannual variability in ring width that these cross-correlations are only moderately strong, as the mean sensitivity values (Fritts, 1976) are typical for dendrochronology, ranging from 0.185 to 0.288. Notably, Tree 31 does

Discussion

These multiple dendrochronological responses to the eruption of Cinder Cone, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, are similar to findings at Parícutin, Michoacán, Mexico. In both cases, ring width alone is suggestive of the eruption dates, but because changes in widths of tree rings can occur in response to other forest disturbances, concluding an eruption based on ring width alone can be difficult. At both Cinder Cone and Parícutin, dendrochemical changes are suggestive of the eruption

Conclusions

Using Cinder Cone as an additional case study to Parícutin, a multifaceted dendrochronological response to Cinder-Cone eruptions includes increases in tree-ring S, P, and Na as well as changes in ring width. Tree-ring width can change abruptly for reasons other than volcanic activity, so interpreting width alone might not yield the correct date of a cinder cone. Adding dendrochemical data to ring-width analysis strengthens dendrochronological dating of cinder-cone eruptions, especially in cases

Acknowledgements

Research and administrative staff of Lassen Volcanic National Park, particularly Calvin Farris, Louise Johnson, and Jonathon Arnold, helped in this research. Mike Fritts, Víctor Peña, and Mark Elson also assisted. Tree-ring chemistry measurements were done at the Environmental Sciences Clean Laboratory and the Chemistry ICP-MS Laboratory of Northern Arizona University. This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (EAR0409117, EAR0409190, EAR0409149) and the

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